The grinding world of politics from the Los Angeles Daily News

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New laws taking effect

Starting next week, minimum-wage workers will see a salary increase, kids will gain new protections from secondhand smoke, and cleats made from kangaroos will be legal to sell in California. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

Those are just a few of the new laws that will take effect Tuesday after the Legislature passed 964 bills this year and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed 750 into law, according to the Senate Office of Research.

But analysts say this year’s legislative session, overshadowed by wrangling over budget issues, resulted in few new laws that will make a major difference to average Californians.

In fact, two of the more significant laws that take effect in 2008 – an increase in the minimum wage and a ban on using handheld wireless phones while driving – were passed not this year, but in 2006.